This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 2002-52314, filed Aug. 31, 2002, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ice maker, and more particularly, to an ice maker provided with an ice making conveyor.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known, refrigerators or automatic dispensers are equipped with ice makers and are adapted to make ice using water supplied thereto.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional ice maker is illustrated which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2000-88414. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional ice maker includes a pair of rollers, that is, a drive roller 1 and a driven roller 2, spaced apart from each other by a desired distance, a motor actuator 3 equipped with a motor (not shown), and adapted to rotate the drive roller 1, and an ice making belt 4 wound around the drive and driven rollers 1 and 2. The ice making belt 4 is provided with ice making recesses 5 made of a flexible material.
The ice making belt 4 has engagement holes 6 formed along lateral edges thereof, whereas each of the drive and driven rollers 1 and 2 is provided with engagement protrusions 7 engagable with the engagement holes 6. The ice making belt 4 can receive drive power from the drive roller 1 in accordance with the engagement between the engagement holes 6 and engagement protrusions 7.
When the motor actuator 3 is operated to rotate the drive roller 1, ice is made in accordance with the freezing of water in the ice making recesses 5 provided at the ice making belt 4, and the drive roller 1 deforms the shape of the ice making recesses 5 made of a flexible material, thereby causing ice to be separated from the ice making recesses 5.
For such a separation of ice from the ice making recesses 5 in the above mentioned ice maker, those ice making recesses 5 are made of a thin synthetic resin structure such as a film to provide a desired flexibility. However, where the ice making recesses 5 are made of a thin synthetic resin structure having flexibility, the recesses may be easily damaged due to being subjected to a repeated deformation in accordance with repeated ice making and separating processes. In particular, since the ice maker is typically installed in a freezing chamber maintained at a low temperature state to freeze water, the hardening of the ice making recesses 5 is accelerated by cold air in the freezing chamber. For this reason, the possibility of damage to the ice making recesses 5 is further increased.
Therefore, an aspect of the present invention is to provide an ice maker capable of preventing ice making recesses from being damaged.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
In accordance with the present invention, prevention of damage to the ice making recesses is accomplished by providing an ice maker that includes a pair of pulleys spaced apart from each other by a desired distance, a drive unit rotating the pulleys, a plurality of tray cells provided with ice making recesses capable of containing water, and an ice making conveyor formed by the tray cells coupled to one another, where the ice making conveyor is wound around the pulleys.
The ice making recesses may be made substantially of a rigid body to prevent being deformed even when subjected to an external force.
In one aspect, each of the tray cells is made of a metal material and includes an ice making section provided with at least one of the ice making recesses and a feeding section that is adapted to support the ice making section and is hingeably coupled at opposite ends thereof to the tray cells arranged adjacent thereto. The feeding section receives drive power from the pulleys and moves around the pulleys along with the ice making section.
In one aspect, each of the tray cells is provided at opposite ends thereof with a hinge protrusion and a hinge hole, respectively. The hinge protrusion and the hinge hole are coupled with a hinge hole provided at an adjacent one of the tray cells and a hinge protrusion provided at another adjacent one of the tray cells, respectively.
In one aspect, the feeding section has a pair of feeding plates spaced apart from each other by a predetermined desired distance to obtain a desired width of the feeding section and a support pin that has opposite ends supported by the feeding plates while maintaining a desired distance between the feeding plates.
In one aspect, each of the feeding plates has opposite ends, each having an arc shape with a desired radius of curvature. One of the ends of the feeding plate has a width that is less than a width of the other end of the feeding plate and is coupled to the other end of an adjacent feeding plate inside the adjacent feeding plate.
The ice maker may further comprise a heater arranged inside the ice making conveyor, where the heater is adapted to apply heat to at least a part of the tray cells that have ice making recesses facing downward to separate ice from the tray cells.
The tray cells may be provided with feeding protrusions or feeding grooves engageable with the feeding protrusions, and the pulleys may be provided with those of the feeding protrusions and feeding grooves not provided at the tray cells, so that the tray cells receive a force from the pulleys via the feeding protrusions and the feeding grooves.